It is a great opportunity to bring a higher number of regular players for the future of the game. Hopefully, there will be newbies, even if it may be difficult to welcome them all correctly at first ^_^

I very much hope that this will bring a *lot* of new people to the game..

One question: I understand that there is no restriction apart from having an internet connection if I am a VSK5 registered user. What if I am a free user? One who does not have VSK32 or VSK5 and downloaded the free version. Any restriction in this case?_________________www.virtual-winds.com

Ive download VSK5Online on my laptop and apparently with this version, you don't have access to Edit mode and to some campaigns for solo game._________________Pierre - OhMonBato
You want some fun ? Download the Melges Cube

hylis could you please explain exactly what "other things" are?
i will not recommend vsk5online to anybody if i don't know exactly what i'm recommending.
another thing, why do you have to be connected to the internet to use vsk5online?_________________acc is evil

I understand. The other things are limitation like virtual cup, personal race and editor. Online, the ladder points are gained more slowly. But those things can be changed. We need to be reactive and to find the good balance between the free game and the paying version. This is the first reason to keep the game connected. The waiting delay is also handled on server side and it depends on the player activity. Also, there, we want to make the good balance between the occasional access and the regular player. But it can also change if there is advertising coming in there.

VSK5 Online free access is a way to enable a lot of people to play solo or multiplayer with the game. We wish to make a balance and that the people that prefers the game, buy it. The same way you don't want to recommend something that you don't know about, it is even better to be able to recommend something free, so the people can try it easily. It is quite difficult to explain what is an online race in VSK to people that are not used to play video games. Tomorrow, I hope that less confident people or players that looks twice before buying will have a solution to really go toward VirtualSkipper, to widen the audience. We did this a little with TM, and millions of people came to the free game. The paying game did not suffered of it, quite the contrary.

But, Do you create the annual fee on (the already paid) VSK5 to finance this new free version? Or to really enhance the sailing Experience for paying VSK players? We don't have to pay for free players.

Because, for the moment, 35€/year in order to gain a few seconds on server connection or to be able to create some tracks, that's really unfair.

Rich oot1960 has takes the TrackMania example, but trackmania don't request an annual fee, and the gap between free and paid version is bigger than now on VSK.

Please, do an official announcement on the use of this annual fee, that not clear. For the moment i have no interest in continue the VSK paying adventure.
Moreover, i'm not sure that ALL vsk5/32 players are aware about this official annual fee. That's not normal_________________Min's ... What else?

Min's, the reason of the fee is one of the mot discussed topic here.
to start with:
http://www.virtualskipper-lejeu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4051
the most simple reason is that the game, beside others, has become difficult to sustain. We like it and want to continue, like other players want. So, we have designed this economical solution. VSK has now an annual fee to play with the paying version. If it goes well, we will be able to make updates or new sailing games. But I will make no promises to players. We are still free to sell what we want like you are free to stop playing VirtualSkipper. We do the best for the future of the game as we think and we are ready to get the sanction if we do wrong choices. Regatta games target a much smaller audience than other gendra, but cost the same price to buy or to make.

I know some players support the initiative. If they are not enough numerous, we will work on something else than regatta games. This is simple. If there is a lot of them, we may be able to make different things. Min's for example, you asked for different ladder for different boats. It is not a bad idea, but I will not do it on my week ends for you. Especially the way you talk. If you want to finance the feature all by yourselves, you need to multiply by a thousands the price of your game. So, as long as I don't know the revenues, I can tell nothing. And, at the moment, there is still a lot to pay on past development. This is also a very basic reason for asking 35€ in one year.